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Engineering precision in medicine

Our laboratory develops engineering approaches to control the delivery and activity of therapeutics in vivo. We integrate nanotechnology, genome engineering, biomaterials, and immunoengineering to overcome key barriers in therapeutic delivery. Current research focuses on spatially controlled genome editing and cancer immunotherapy, engineered extracellular vesicles for targeted delivery, and magnetic nanotechnologies that regulate biological processes.

Research

Spatially Controlled Genome Editing

We engineer delivery systems that restrict genome-editing activity to defined anatomical sites, enabling localized genome editing and cancer immunotherapy while limiting activity in healthy tissues.

Engineered Extracellular Vesicles

We develop scalable strategies to engineer biological vesicles for targeted delivery of nucleic acids, proteins, and genome-editing machinery across challenging biological barriers.

Magnetic Nanomedicine

We investigate how nanoscale magnetic forces and heating interact with biological systems and harness these mechanisms for targeted delivery, cellular regulation, and therapeutic intervention.

Featured Research

Spatially Controlled Genome Editing

Conceptual illustration of magnetically controlled, spatially restricted genome editing, adapted from our bioRxiv preprint.

Spatially controlled genome editing

We are developing delivery systems that control not only where genome editors accumulate, but where they become biologically active. Our magnetically activatable platform enables localized genome editing at selected disease sites while suppressing activity elsewhere. We are applying this strategy to cancer immunotherapy through spatial genome editing and local immune activation.

Explore spatial genome editing →

Latest Highlights

New NIH R01 supports spatially controlled genome editing

A new NIDCR-funded project will develop magnetically controlled genome-editing strategies for localized head and neck cancer therapy.

Magnetic nanoparticle heating

A new Nano Letters study reveals how nanoscale magnetic switching governs multiscale heating behavior.

NIH TARGETED Challenge

ARENEX was selected as a Phase I winner for developing nonviral genome-editor delivery technologies.

Selected Publications

Spatial control of genome editing activity enables localized immunotherapy
bioRxiv, 2026
Spatially controlled genome editing for localized cancer immunotherapy.

Nanoscale magnetic switching governs multiscale heating in magnetic nanoparticles
Nano Letters, 2026
Mechanistic insights into magnetic nanoparticle heating across size scales.

Spatial control of in vivo CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing via nanomagnets
Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2019
Magnetically controlled spatial genome editing in vivo.

Engineered materials for in vivo delivery of genome editing machinery
Nature Reviews Materials, 2019
Engineering principles for therapeutic genome-editor delivery.